As long as you are past freezing temps., a good way to grow plants is to put them outdoors as soon as they germinate. I do this when I start seeds. Once they germinate in my kitchen, I put them into small pots, in my unheated greenhouse. They don't skip a beat in their growth and that way there's no back and forth hardening off process to bother with. They are completely acclimated to the environment you're planning to plant them in by doing this. This can be done even if you don't have a greenhouse as I'm only using mine to house the plants for a short time. As long as the tiny seedlings aren't in a spot where a rabbit or other animal might eat them off, you can set them out on your patio, etc. to grow to the size at which you'll put them in pots or the ground.

Oz, It depends on the sunlight. If you can picture the back porch, it is at the rear of an east-facing house, so the east wall of the screened-in back porch is a two-story house and that shades it until noon. The north wall of the back porch is a real wall with two real glass windows I can open for venting. The south and west walls are half walls and half screens, with the screens covered in greenhouse plastic. The door that leads outside is on the south wall. Thus, I can control how much light they get just by where I place them. On their first couple of days out, if it is very warm and sunny, I put the flats on a bench along the north wall, so they get no direct sunlight but lots of indirect light, and I open the windows to give them some air movement and to help vent the heat. I leave the walk-in door open too. If it is partly cloudy or cool, I put the flats on tables alongside the west or south wall for about a half day where they get diffused sunlight through the layer of opaque greenhouse plastic and the fiberglass screens. If the sun comes out, I move them to the north wall for the afternoon. If it stays cloudy, sometimes I leave them on the south wall and sometimes I move them to the north wall. I like that they get some natural light but not strong sunlight. If I am using the front or side porch, I sort of move them around the same way--letting them get some wind and some direct light early, early in the day but mostly indirect light. After 2 or 3 days of that, I can move them outside with less fear of sunburn or windburn. Of course, if the wind is wild and rowdy, as March winds often are, I set the plants up against the south wall of the house to they get mostly indirect light and have some wind protection from the house, the porch railings and the shrubbery. If I worked away from home all day, I would probably leave them on the east-facing front porch where they'd only get a little direct sun early in the day. If I have to leave in a hurry to go to a fire once they are already out on the screened-in porch, I move them to the north wall if time permits. It is usually just a few flats, so moving them can be as simple as dragging a table from the south or west wall to the east or north wall. If you don't have a porch that offers shelter, you can create a hardening off area with shadecloth, lattice, several layers of inexpensive cheesecloth, etc. Back when I lived in Fort Worth and worked full-time, I started hardening off plants by giving them their first hour of sun late on a Friday after work, then gave them 3 hrs. on Sat., 5 hrs. on Sun, and placed them in dappled shade, or on either the west or east side of the house where they'd get 4-6 hours of sunlight but not 8-10 hours of sunlight. I had to have a back-up plan in case the weather suddenly turned violent (hard rain, hail, extreme wind, etc.) and, in my case either my parents or sister, all of whom lived nearby were able to go move the plants inside if I called and asked them to. I still have issues with birds (wild, not the domesticated poultry), deer, rabbits and other wildlife thinking the fresh-from-the-house seedlings are a salad bar for them, and that is why I often put them on the porches early in the process. Even when they are out on the patio, I try to arrange patio furniture around the plastic folding table the seedling flats sit on so I can keep at least the deer away. Sometimes, when they are out on the patio, I throw bird netting over them somewhat loosely. Hope this info helps. Dawn

I was raised in Mississippi in the 40's about 30 miles South of Jackson. At that time, the area (Copiah County)was known as the Tomato growing capital of the US. Tomatos, Bell Peppers, beans, cabbage were the major crops grown on farms ranging from 5 to 100 acres. It was a common thing for these farms to have "hot beds" and Cold Frames to get the plants ready for the field. The hot beds were kept heated with kerosene lanterns and after the plants were moved to the cold frame, a thin white denim cloth commonly called "cold frame cloth" was used as the cover. The hot beds and cold frames were used for cabbage plants and later in the season for Tomato and Bell Pepper plants. In town, there was a steam powered "cold whistle" called the "Squeedunk" because of it's strange sound. The thing could be heard for close to 10 miles out. The local Western Union operator would get the weather report and relay it to the town fathers who would authorize blowing of the "Squeedunk" to warn the farmers of a frost or freeze that evening. If the Sqeedunk was blown during the day, school would let out so the kids could hurry home to help cover up the cold frames and get ready for the front that was about to pass through. Back in those days, weather reporting was about 3 hours in advance so there wasn't much notice of weather changes. Your idea of using a cold frame is a good one that has been tried and proven years back. In that part of the country, the time honored rule is to get tomatoes in the field before the first of April, but of course, for us here about 200 miles further North, that is a bit risky. Every year in Crystal Springs MS in July, there is a tomato festival that honors the time frame from the 20's through the mid 50's when the vegetables were grown. I have a friend from high school who after retiring is back into the tomato farming business to have a booth at the festival. He has about 1/2 acre of tomatos and his are always the prize winners. His recipe for tomato fertilizer is 5-20-20 and it is regularly available in bulk from the local Co-ops. For a side dressing later on the tomatos, he uses "sodie' as he calls it. It is not the old Nitrate of Soda (16%) but is a Sodium Caltrate that has lots of calcium along with the 15% nitrogen. He is adamant about keeping the Nitrogen low for tomatos. He says that the Phosporus and Potash will make the Tomatos "fruit and root" and the Nitrogen would just make vine. He grows them in the same spot every year and between seasons treats the ground with "Slag" and Lime. I am gradually pulling his secrets from him but it is a slow process. He picks tomatos when they are barely "pinking" and brings them in to an airconditioned double garage where they are sorted and layed out to ripen. This business that you see on TV with the upside down tomatos and vines covered with bright red tomatos is purely Hollywood stunt photography. Real vine ripened tomatos happen on the window sill of the kitchen and not outside on the vine waiting for Mr. Bird to come peck it the day before you were going to pick it. This guy knows how to market and sells his tomatos in boxes about the size of a Xerox paper box for $25 each or $1.50 per pound in peck size containers. Last year at the festival, he sold 125 of the full boxes and ran completely out of tomatos. The culled tomatos were sold from his farm (about 12 acres) to people looking for canners. Only the best shaped tomatos make it to the festival and he has people lined up at his booth. There will probably be about 10 booths of tomatos at other vendors but none have the quality and looks that his do. In addition to the ones sold at the festival, he probably sells an additional 100 to 150 boxes to people who come out to the farm. With the improved fertilizer and plants of today, he is probably making 20 times as much on his half acre of tomatos as his family did on the full 100 acres back in the 50's. He and I recently had a phone conversation about the old cold frames and the "Squeedunk" whistle. Now, he purchases his tomato plants from the Junior College in Raymond MS about 35 miles away. In January, he ordered 2500 plants from them, picked them up the last week in March and set out (by hand with a trowell- 2 days) just before the end of March. So far he has been lucky with the weather and hasn't had the hail that we have had here. With continued luck, he will have another banner year at the Tomato festival.

How are you going to take the laundry basket off to increase the sun if you're not home until 4pm? Can you find a spot that only gets morning sun (north or east side of a building or large tree), put the plants there to harden off after a day or 2 in complete shade, then each day inch them out to the west/south a little so they get a little more sun each day? That's what I do so I don't have to run out each morning or afternoon to move a bunch of plants? I am thinking of trying the laundry basket (actually just pots) to "harden off" my plants after transplanting this week - they just haven't seen much sun these past 2-3 weeks that I've been trying to harden them off and it's getting late to plant, can't really take the time to wait for Mother Nature to cooperate. So I'm planting the more-hardened and hardy tomatoes tomorrow (POURING today, I think we're getting that 2" dump you just got, Linda) and will try to shade them with pots for Sunday when it's bright and sunny. The more delicate, less-hardened peppers will be planted on Monday when it will be overcast again, trying the pots to shelter them if necessary though I'm going to try to give them a little more sun over the weekend (don't know how much they can tolerate after so many overcast days in a row). I'll let you know how it goes.